Service Dog

Hello, we are fundraising for a service dog for our daughter, Nora. Nora has medication resistant epilepsy. When Nora was three years old, she had her first seizure. She was hospitalized for a week, had many diagnostic tests done, including a brain biopsy. For a little over a year she was seizure free on one medication. In November of 2021, Nora's seizures rapidly began spiraling out of control. She developed new types of seizures, tried 13 medications, suffered horrible side effects, ended up in the hospital countless times, stitches, concussions, chipped teeth, fell down the stairs, seizures that lasted over an hour and so much more. At one point, Nora was having hundreds of seizures a day and her medications barely helped. In January of 2023 Nora had a VNS implanted, and with her current medication combination, she is having 3-5 seizures a week. Nora is now 7 years old and we are hoping to provide her with a service dog so that she can have more independence, like sleeping in her own room. With uncontrolled epilepsy there is a large risk of SUDEP, and unfortunately the technological devices that exist to detect seizures don't work for Nora because her large seizures don't have tremors, but resemble a stroke. With Nora's VNS, we can swipe a magnet on the device that sends a pulse of electricity to her brain. A service dog would be able to alert us to a seizure prior to one happening, and we would hopefully be able to prevent the seizure from happening altogether. Please consider donating so that Nora can have a service dog that can help alert to seizures at night, so that she will always wake up in the morning and live another day!

Thank you!